Tom Christensen
New York School
Playscape PSR#J041504
Playscape seems to specialize in this kind of jazz: just a little left-of-centre rather than way-out-there, but done with enough conviction and idiosyncracy to set it apart from the pack. Tom Christensen is a formidable multi-instrumentalist: on this album alone he plays tenor and soprano sax, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and wood flute. Much of the stress nonetheless falls on the tenor, on which he reminds me at times of (a more tasteful) Chris Potter or (a more forceful) Mark Turner. His front-line partner is saxophonist Walt Weiskopf, who often plays the same instruments in tandem with the leader but has a lateral-thinking approach that contrasts usefully with Christensen’s forward-moving oratory. The rhythm section is one-of-a-kind, pairing bassist Kermit Driscoll (nice to see him returning to the recording studios after a long quiet spell after he left Bill Frisell’s band) and percussionist/drummer Satoshi Takeishi, whose drum set has frame and Japanese drums in place of snares, resulting in a deep, rather bouncy sound.
A previous Christensen album, Paths, featured tracks inspired by Richard Brautigan’s poetry; New York School, as the title indicates, pays homage to Frank O’Hara and the poets and painters in his circle. Curiously enough, the album’s feeling is pretty dark and serious, with little of the throwaway wit and buoyancy of the New York School poets (perhaps it’s painters like Pollock or Rothko he has in mind instead?). Christensen’s rendering of “In Memory of My Feelings,” for instance, is restrained and sombre rather than mimicking the poem’s tumultous vision of the self-as-Chinese-box. It’s as if Christensen wrote the piece as an actual elegy, perhaps in the knowledge that after O’Hara’s death the line “Grace to be born and live as variously as possible” was engraved on his tombstone.
This is a thoughtful, distinctive album, short of being a major statement perhaps but well worth hearing. It also features one genuinely electrifying moment. Walt Weiskopf’s solo on “Guardians” has much of the paradoxical heated-cool of Wayne Shorter: it’s full of conventionally inflammatory gestures – an ecstatic Coltrane lick, a long note blown hard till it curdles – but they’re assembled with bold artifice, a series of discrete gestures each played off the other. The effect is arresting and curiously provocative; and the result is a solo that lodges permanently in the mind once you’ve heard it.
~ Nate Dorward
Posted by nate on June 3, 2005 8:58 AMThis sounds right up my alley. Haven't heard Christensen before but based on your comparisons, at times - granted, to Potter and Turner and the fact that Walt Weiskopf is onboard is enough to add this to my list of albums to get. Have you heard other Weiskopf Nate, he's a fine player and "lateral-thinking" describes his approach well.
Of Playscape recordings I have either one or none, shame on me - time and money you see. I should really check out some of the recent Pavone as there as well, I guess.
Posted by: gokhan at June 4, 2005 2:51 PMGokhan--I saw Weiskopf in concert with Renee Rosnes, but don't own any other discs of his. He's one of Larry Kart's favourites among the current crop of saxophonists, which is a recommendation in itself :) ...!
I've only heard two other Playscapes. The recent octet disc (I think it was called Spirits?) playing arrangements of Thomas Chapin tunes is rather unremarkable (& disappointing, given the Chapin connection); but Pavone's Boom is excellent, with Tony Malaby in the band. I'm told the previous Pavone CD, Orange, is good too.
while the naxos jazz imprint was active, they managed to put out another fine christensen disc called gualala. with charles pillow (another many reed-er) ben allison or doug weiss on bass and takeishi on percussion again. nice stuff.
Posted by: emory davis at June 5, 2005 9:32 AM[Nate] A previous Christensen album, Paths, featured tracks inspired by Richard Brautigan’s poetry
[Mike] Would you be able to say a few things about this record? I'm somewhat interested in Brautigan (mainly because of the Mad River connection)and I like the concept and was planning to get the Brautigan recordings one of these days.
Mike--haven't heard Paths--just got the info that it contained some pieces inspired by Brautigan from a press release. There's a review here:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=11027
(typical AAJ sloppiness: all the smart quotes are ?s).
Posted by: ND at June 6, 2005 7:55 AMThat's a formatting disaster that happened during a server change some months ago affecting thousands of texts...
Posted by: Michael Anton Parker at June 6, 2005 8:51 AMIck. But it's easy enough to fix some words like "doesn?t" and "don?t" via search & replace.
Posted by: ND at June 6, 2005 4:34 PMI second the recommendation of Gualala, but New York School is far and away the excellent Christensen album to pick up. 'Guardians' knocked me on my ass the first time I heard it, not just because of the slick unison-harmony movement of the sax parts, but because of the amazing percussion sounds that Satoshi Takeishi integrates where you would normally hear text-book drumset-playing. I saw Takeishi play live with Erik Friedlander's Topaz and it was really unlike anything I'd ever seen.
As far as bass-playing goes, Kermit Driscoll thrums along on this, bringing a massive and confident bottom end under Takeishi's variegated palette of sounds. Last I heard Driscoll was playing electric and upright on Gerry Hemingway's quintet disc, Double Blues Crossing, a fairly avant-garde release blended with some serious bop swing. This release is much more conventional, but Driscoll plays like a champ and doesn't drop any unnecessary notes.
I'm not a huge expert on this or that reeds player, but I'm always impressed by the way Christensen makes use of some of jazz's ugly duckling instruments. The English horn and oboe are two of my favorite classical instruments, and it's great to hear them brought to this kind of music. Him and Weiskopf otherwise completely rip and bring tons of confidence to the music with every solo.
Altogether a fabulous release. Great review also.
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